We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miranda Watson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miranda below.

Alright, Miranda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I started my business as a side gig, during slow times, while I was working for another company full time. I constantly dreamed of doing my own thing but was scared of loosing my salary, especially after I had my first kid. During 2020, I lost my job, not really sure why, after 8 years of putting in my all, it vanished. There was never a formal goodbye, just zero communication once all my responsibilities slowly transferred to his wife who was, “helping,” since i was working remote. Anyway, that changed everything. I did an extensive job search, applied to every field I thought would accept me and after batting zero for a year, I took the chance and decided to take my side gig and make it my everything. After three years of doing this full time, I have dreamed of going back to a regular job. It’s not that I am unhappy but more insecure about where this is going. Last season (2023 Spring-Fall) was rough. I mainly do outdoor markets which are dependent on weather and it rained for 6 Saturdays straight. Those were some of my biggest event weekends and they were mostly awash. I tripled my production from the previous year, which means making all my main product in a month to last me the whole year. I was devastated, I couldn’t believe how small my sales were and terrified about how I was going to keep this going. Because of that I started looking for work. I now have three kids (a four year old and twin two year olds) and the last thing I want to worry about is if I can provide for them. I got scared. Luckily my Holiday season brought me back, not to where I had hoped but to a point I turned off Indeed and brought my full attention back to my business.
I have started looking at options, through my business, to expand sales that are not dependent on my markets. I have to say that I do have the ability to adapt when needed, like when the chips are down, I put my game face on and go. It was just harder for me to take that leap this time because I have so much more to worry about now. It’s not just me that can get hurt if I don’t make it. So if this season goes wrong, will I return to those thoughts, maybe but I will defiantly wait till after the holidays to start freaking out this time. I don’t really want to go back to a job either because, as I learned, that’s never a guarantee either. I am almost as afraid to but my future in the hands of someone else again.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Miranda, I am an artist, wife, mother of three (a four year old and twin two year olds) and owner/everything of an ever growing business. I started, Sundry Mornings Spice Co., after working on my MFA in Photography. I know it sounds strange but my thesis was about local farms and producers, which really sparked my love for local food and I wanted to be a part of it. I ended up with a lot of produce from the shoots. The one I wasn’t sure what to do with was the lot of hot peppers I got from one farm. So as not to spoil them I dried them for later use. I decided to make them into taco seasoning because my husband, then boyfriend, eat them every week. At first it was just the peppers that were locally sourced and over a couple years I started drying everything I could find locally, including the garlic, onions, herbs and tomatoes. I also expanded from a single mix to five total that all had local elements in them. From there I decided my slogan was, “Farm Fresh Flavor All Year Round,” and tried to come up with other products I could make that used local / sustainably sourced ingredients. I started making hot sauce with unusual bases like, cherries, beets and blueberries. They took off so I started to have more fun with seasonal and themed items depending on the event. At one point I even made vegan marshmallow cereal, it started to get a little out of control. It wasn’t till, 2016 when I did a Halloween themed event that I came up with my biggest seller, Bloody The Vampire Slayer, bloody mary mix.
I wanted to do something that would highlight my friends garlic and use as many fresh, local ingredients I could get my hands on. I decided to make an all fresh bloody mary mix, which I had not seen offered before. I got to developing, making sure the garlic was forward and it had all the flavor needed so you wouldn’t have to add a thing, other than the booze. I only made a few cases that first run and sold ever jar in the two days I was at that event. I had one vendor who bought a bottle, drank it dry and came back for a second that same day. that really made me think that I had something going on there.
I continued to make it seasonally but not in very large quantities because juicing tomatoes by hand was a lot of work!
Fast forward to 2020, I lost my job which is where I was making my mix but luckily my husband works in a factory that processes tomatoes so I could keep it going. Still I didn’t think of it as my number one, I was still more focused on spices and hot sauce. After joining the farmers/craft market circuit in 2022 I was barely getting by. I had my mix and other items in a consignment shop that opened to help local makers during COVID since most events shut down. I was lucky to have a friend there selling his products where he had picked up a bottle of my mix. A few months later we had a conversation that changed everything for me. He told me my mix was amazing, which meant a lot coming from him and that I should make it my focus because it was like nothing else out there. So I doubled my production from 2021 and still managed to run out before the next tomato season. Seems like a good thing but it had me spooked. That’s what lead me to start making shrubs.
I started getting citrus from a small farm out of Texas the year before and was drying the varieties of citrus to make cocktail infusion kits. When I got my first batch in 2023 I decided to try making shrubs instead. It was the perfect substitute for my bloody mary mix because my buyers saw it as something new and it still fit in the cocktail theme. What I didn’t see coming was it opening up my market to non-alcohol drinkers. I had people who bought my bloody mary mix who didn’t drink but now I had a product that was geared more towards that audience. I can also change up the flavors as the seasons go making it a bit more diverse than my bloody mary mix.
Making shrubs also lead me to making jams, spreads and fruit sauces. I have always been one for sustainability and didn’t want to see anything go to waste. With the way I make shrubs, the fruit is always left over so I started turning that into other products which also opened up a new customer base as well. All those who walked away in fear that all my products would be to spicy started shopping at my stand. I never want my business to be boring, thats why it is called Sundry Mornings because I will always make a variety of things to keep it interesting!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what helped me build my reputation is that I am a woman of my word. I started my business with the idea that everything would be sourced locally / sustainably and not only have a stuck to that but I have only made the commitment stronger. I am very transparent about where my ingredients are sourced, I create partnerships with local farms and businesses to elevate our brands and I take care of my customers needs.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

I sell the majority of my products at in person events. I do some online sales and also wholesale to a few local stores. I refused Amazon when they approached me because sell with them goes against my personal values but also it seemed like the biggest scam to me. I am not that big of a company, why they thought a company my size would be able to afford the cost they demand would be feasible. I jumped of Etsy early (2016) because the cost versus the sales were not great, I could only imagine Amazon would have been worse.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sundrymornings.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sundrymornings
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sundrymornings